The main purpose of this study was to determine the quality and impact of various
presentations of elder abuse information to establish the most effective ways to educate
the public about elder abuse. Secondary to this purpose was to explore aspects of
restorative justice interventions for elder abuse cases. The first experiment involved three
pamphlets with similar content that were presented with titles reflecting different
conceptual frameworks; elder abuse, conflict resolution, and empowerment. The
pamphlets were simultaneously made available at a seniors centre to determine any
differences in frequency of pamphlet selection. Elder abuse was the least selected
pamphlet, offering empirical evidence to the claim that people avoid materials with the
words elder abuse on them. The second experiment involved students reading one of 6
pamphlets with similar content but with the wording varied on two dimensions; type of
conceptual framework, and tone (emotional versus neutral wording). The student
participants rated the quality and impact of the information, answered items about their
knowledge, beliefs and attitudes about elder abuse, and provided some basic
demographic information. Elder abuse pamphlets were rated to have higher impact than
other messages. It appears that although elder abuse messages have the most impact for
students, the seniors are less likely to pick up educational material using this language; so
alternate wordings may be the best solution to deliver the message about elder abuse to
the most people.